English · Proverb Candidate

Take heed what you say. Walls have ears. (James Shirley)

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Be careful what you say, as others may be listening

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

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Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: walls can hear

Examples

Take heed what you say, walls have ears

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed on English Wikiquote “English proverbs” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Topics: Ears House & home

Common questions

What does “Take heed what you say. Walls have ears. (James Shirley)” mean?

Be careful what you say, as others may be listening Literally: walls can hear

Is “Take heed what you say. Walls have ears. (James Shirley)” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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